Around the Sun
by Elske
Summary: The invisible boy has a story to tell. One summer in the life of Toby Isaacs. New friendships and loves, family changes, and of course a bit of drama. Updated 07 September!
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes:**

Hello everyone! I return to with the beginning chapters of what's going to become something of an epic epistolary Degrassi-fic, thanks to seeing "High Fidelity" and being struck with Plot Bunnies that Would Not Die. Be warned that there are teeny tiny spoilers for "High Fidelity" here.

This is primarily a Paige and Toby friendship fic, because…let's face it, they'd make good friends. They have that same snarky sort of sense of humour. There will also be Palex, Toby? (I'm not giving all the secrets away in the author's notes!), and a bit of Ashley/Jimmy. There will be snark and reconciliations and friendships, a road-trip and a wedding, girlkissing and boykissing and girl-and-boy-kissing, and Toby might just get laid. Maybe. winks

So here is the first chapter. Read, review, and enjoy. Chapter two will be coming soon. (:

cheers,

elske

* * *

Niagara University School of Journalism

Dunleavy Hall

Niagara University, NY 14109

TOBY W. ISAACS

Personal Statement:

I could fill up this letter talking about the reasons I should be accepted to your programme of study – about all the experience I have working on the school newspaper, for example. Or I could go on about how much I want to be a journalist when I grow up, about being a little kid and watching Superman cartoons and thinking it would be so much better to work at the Daily Planet than to fight crime, even. But I know something more important than either of those things, to be honest. The one and only reason that I really should be accepted is that I, Toby W. Isaacs, have a story to tell.

And this is how it goes.

The funny thing about real-life is that it's hard to tell when stories start and stop. In television and books, it's easy. Everything is wrapped up in half an hour or a handful of pages. Real-life is a bit more difficult. But I guess every story has to start somewhere, and as far as I can tell, this one begins with a phone call.

About a week after school ended, I came home after an appointment with my shrink to find my almost-stepsister watching the news on TV. "Mom and Geoff went out for Chinese. They're bringing it back for dinner," Ashley said. And then she asked, "Hey, what happened to Brian?"

"It's been a sad year in Canadian television, and you missed all of it," I told her. "Canada Now went national and they aired the last new Red Green." Ashley'd spent the last year in England with her father and his husband. The funny thing is that I really missed her when she was gone. The house was quiet without her: playing her piano, breaking up with her boyfriends, watching PBS at three in the morning. I'd never admit it to her that I missed her, of course.

"Hmm. At least Ian's still here," she replied, looking back at her favourite newscaster on the TV. "You still like sweet and sour chicken, right? That's what I told Geoff when he asked what you wanted. I'll do the dishes if you set the table?"

"That's a horrible deal," I protested. "There aren't dishes with Chinese, everyone just eats out of the paper cartons." But I went to go set the table anyway; if nothing else, she'd have water-glasses and silverware to wash.

"Thanks Tobes. Oh, and Jimmy's coming, so set a place for him too?"

"Yeah, yeah." I was busy setting out the silverware when the phone rang. Ash answered it, said "Oh, hi mom," and managed to only sound a little bit disappointed. I knew she was waiting for her boyfriend to call; they'd been joined at the hip ever since she came home from England and they got back together. It was slightly surreal, like stepping into a time-warp four years into the past. Ashley and Jimmy were dating when my father and I first moved to Toronto. It was like getting a really awesome stepbrother to go along with my insufferable stepsister. I think I was more upset than Ash was when they broke up.

"That was mom," she said, hanging up the phone. "She's running late, but they're on their way to get the food, and them home. And she says she has good news for us, or something. God, I'm _starving_." Ash disappeared into the pantry, emerged with a granola bar. "Hey, want half?"

I hadn't eaten since breakfast, but I shook my head. "It's almost dinner," I explained. So Ashley went back to the living room and switched the TV to some French guy being interviewed on Charlie Rose and I continued setting the table.

Not five minutes later, the phone rang again. This time when Ashley answered it, she started laughing. "Toby, it's for you," she said, tossing the cordless phone in my direction.

My first thought was that it was probably that army recruiter again, because the only person who ever called was JT, and he stopped cracking jokes on the phone months ago. I managed to catch the phone, said, "Hello?"

"Hi, Toby? It's me, um, Paige?"

I recognised her voice right away, of course. And I was dumbfounded to hear it. This was Paige Michaelchuck, phoning me. Allow me to explain – Paige was always the most popular girl at our school, Degrassi. She's beautiful and smart and, in one word, _amazing_. Paige made surviving date-rape and standing up against your attackers cool. When Paige fell in love with a girl she made homosexuality cool, not that it was that difficult, but still, Paige did it. This girl's invincible. She had no business phoning up me, Toby Isaacs, someone so invisible that I didn't even _register_ on the social strata. I'm a class A geek: glasses and computer programming and anime, the school newspaper and a four-point-two average, the freaking chess club and everything. Paige, calling me, was unthinkable. "Um. Hi Paige," I stammered.

And she laughed. "Hon, you seem surprised," she said. "Did you or did you not tell me to call you?"

I felt myself blushing. Yeah, I had told her that, in a routine sort of pick-up-line kind of way. "I, yeah, but…you know…I never expected that'd be the day you started paying attention!" I said. Maybe that was a little unfair, because she sounded almost hurt.

"Yeah," she said. "I'm sorry, it's just…between what happened with Alex and what happened with Spin and Hazel going on vacation, everyone's either busy or hating me and I figured…I dunno. Sorry to have bothered you, hun."

"Wait," I said, a bit too strongly, because Paige started laughing again. "You're not _bothering_ me. I was just surprised."

"You always seemed nice," she said. "And you _told me_ to call. So." It was the first time I'd ever heard her sound so awkward. "Did you want to go to the movies or get coffee or something? Not having friends gets dull fast."

I was something of an expert on that feeling. But I wasn't about to tell her that. "I can't right now. Dinner with my parents. We're having Chinese, you can come if you want?" You always get huge portions from the Mandarin Buffet, even in take out, so I knew there'd be enough to share. "Jimmy's going to be here, too."

There was a long silence on the line, and then Paige sighed. "How about after dinner? I'll come pick you up. We'll go get coffee. Not from the Dot."

"Sure! That'd be great!" I must have sounded too enthusiastic, because she laughed again.

"Later, hun," she said before hanging up the phone.

"Tobes? Was that Paige?" asked Ashley, who'd apparently decided that eavesdropping was more interesting than public television.

"Yeah," I admitted, putting down the phone so I could fold the fifth napkin for the table.

"You're friends now?"

"Maybe." I shrugged. "You did miss a lot, last year," I told her with a grin. And then the doorbell rang, and luckily I was saved from any more scrutiny on her part.

Dad and Kate were home with Chinese food and the promised great news.

Said great news became rapidly less enigmatic at the sight of Kate's new engagement ring.


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Notes:_

Hello dear readers!

I might be discouraged about this story, if not for the fact that has this nifty thing where you can see how many hits your story gets. So even though only one person reviewed, it looks like 139 of you read this. So that makes me feel good. (: If you're reading this and liking it (or not liking it, even!) please drop me a review to let me know for sure! Special thanks to the person who added this to their alert list, and to **Hopeless Sarcastic** for writing a lovely review.

Okay, onto chapter 2! Chapter 3 – in which there will be coffee and donuts, Toby and Paige telling secrets, and maybe even a smidge of Palex – will be out soon. Yay. Enjoy!

* * *

("Around the Sun" – chapter 2)

My dad's arms were full of Chinese food; he smiled and walked into the dining-room so he could set the bag down, and Ashley grabbed at Kate's hand to get a better look at the ring. "Geoff finally popped the question!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, yes, yes," said Kate, laughing. "At the Mandarin Buffet, where we had our first date."

"You had no idea your dad was such a romantic, did you?" my dad said, coming up behind me and ruffling up my hair like he did when I was still a little kid.

"No idea," I answered, honestly. They were both in really good moods and smiling a lot more than they normally did. I suppose marriage proposals do that to people.

"Mom, another wedding…I don't think I have the _strength_," added Ashley. She was referring, of course, to her father's wedding last spring. She and Kate planned it, I helped too, I guess.

"Oh, hush, Ash," said Kate. "I'm not your father; I don't need a coronation."

"We already decided it would be small and simple at City Hall," my dad added. "We've both been married before, and there's no need to go to lots of fuss."

"Does this mean no parties at the gay bar?" I asked, because I couldn't help myself. Mr Kerwin's party at the bar was a very memorable experience.

Ashley flinched, but Kate laughed. "Well, I suppose that'll be up to my maid of honour here," she replied, putting one arm around Ashley's shoulders.

"Gee, I'd hate to disappoint you," Ashley told me, giving me one of those ­­_looks_.

I could feel myself blushing. "Ashley," I said, in my very best Toby Is Not Amused voice.

"Leave him be, girls," said my dad, "I'm starving, and dinner's getting cold." I gave him a relieved sort of smile, followed him into the dining-room.

The doorbell rang. "Oh," said Ashley, "That's Jimmy," and she ran to answer the door.

"Jimmy! It's great to see you again," Kate said when Ashley wheeled Jimmy into the dining-room.

"Hey Mrs Kerwin! Mr Isaacs. Congrats on the engagement."

"You told him _already_?" Kate mock-glared at Ashley. The three of them all started talking at the same time, which was nice because no-one noticed how I was busying myself scooping out rice onto plates as a way to keep from looking at Jimmy. Because, the truth is? Jimmy Brooks makes me nervous. It's not Jimmy so much as his wheelchair. And it's not like I'm prejudiced against the disabled or anything, it's just Jimmy in particular.

I guess it's because every time I see him, I can't help remembering why he's there. In the wheelchair, I mean. I'm sure everyone remembers seeing the story of the Degrassi school shooting on the news, and the thing is, I was there when it happened. It's funny; whenever anyone talks about it now, it's always 'when Jimmy got shot', always in the passive voice, almost as if there was just a disembodied gun ready to ruin people's lives. No one ever says 'when Rick shot Jimmy'. It's like Rick's been forgotten about, and that bothers me, because…Rick was there. Rick shot Jimmy. And then Rick died.

And Rick was my friend, Rick was more than that, and even though he did such bad things, things he shouldn't ever have done, I miss him. It's horrible, but it's true. And that's what I think about, every time I see Jimmy's wheelchair. It makes my stomach do flip-flops. I hate myself for it, a little.

Luckily enough, between dad and Kate's engagement and Jimmy putting together his portfolio to apply to art schools and Ashley's return to songwriting, everyone had plenty of things to talk about and I sort of blended into the background, listening to everyone else talking, eating my sweet and sour chicken and hoping that Ashley wouldn't bring up that surprising phone-call.

And then, just as I thought about Paige, I heard the doorbell ring.

"Is that your ride already?" Kate asked Jimmy. He shook his head.

"It's for me," I said, a little too quickly. "I'm going out with some friends, okay? I won't be too late, and Ash already promised she'd do the dishes." I stood up, dropped my napkin on the table.

"You haven't finished your dinner," my dad protested.

"Who cares," teased Ashley, "Toby has a date!"

It wasn't a date, but I ignored them both. "Like I said, I'll be back soon," I told Kate, who smiled at me, as if to apologise for Ashley and my dad.

When I opened the door, Paige was waiting on the porch. "Hi hon," she said. "I was thinking maybe coffee?"

"Sounds great," I replied, "Just great."


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Notes:

I finally got to see "High Fidelity" last night, which was so much better than I'd even expected reading the transcripts of it. Toby was so cute, hehehe.

Anyway, _so many reviews_! Big giant thank-yous to **StorytellerD**, **radiance x**, **Anne**, **uname**, **degrassifreak87**, and **jbutton**. I'm loving all the Toby!love and all the encouraging words. Reviews make me squee. Thank you all!

Also, for those of you who don't live in Canada or any other regions where they have Tim Hortons – Tims is a doughnut shop, kind of similar to (and superior to!) Dunkin Donuts. Just fyi, as a Tims is the setting of this chapter.

And hey, speaking of Tim – Tim the adorable Degrassi boy (and not the hockey-playing restauranteur) – chapter 4 featuring Tim, Toby, and Mrs Kerwin, will be here soon. In the meantime, here's chapter 3. Enjoy!

* * *

"Around the Sun"

(Chapter 3)

From what I knew of Paige – which was, admittedly, not very much then – I was expecting we'd go to one of those edgy fancy coffee places. So I was really surprised when we pulled into the parking lot of a Tim Hortons.

She must have mistaken my surprised look for one of disapproval, because she frowned and asked, "Oh, is this all right? Next to the Dot, their coffee's the best."

"Sure. Tims is great," I said. I hadn't been here in years – not since the day Jay shoved me inside a locker and Rick came to let me out, asked to apologise over a latté like it was his fault that I was an unpopular geek, and it might have been, but wasn't unpopular better than invisible?

"Um. Hon?" Paige said, and I realized I'd been caught daydreaming.

"Sorry!" I got out of the car, followed her into the restaurant. It was mostly empty; a university student was probably studying for finals at a table full of textbooks and an elderly gentleman sipped coffee while working on a crossword puzzle.

Paige ordered her coffee, then asked "Split me a box of Timbits?" The fresh doughnut smell was damnably irresistible. I knew I'd probably regret it, but I nodded my head.

"Sure," I said, reaching for my wallet. "And a large coffee, extra cream?"

"My treat," she told me, and then grinned at the surprised look on my face.

"I forget not everyone's as cheap as JT,"I told her, taking my coffee from the counter, leading the way to a corner table. She sat down and began picking through the assortment of miniature doughnuts.

And then a silence fell. I awkwardly took a sip of my too-hot coffee and promptly burnt my tongue. Failing to find a more interesting topic of information, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "You're, um, going to Banting in the fall, right?"

Paige laughed, but it was a tired world-weary sort of laughter – enough to make it clear that this was _not_ on her list of things she felt like talking about. "Yeah. Go Banting." Her voice was devoid of enthusiasm.

"It's a really good school. One of the best in the country."

"Harvard of the North. Yeah. I know." She picked up a powdered-sugar doughnut and began picking it to pieces. "And up until last week, I'd have thought Banting was all I ever wanted. If that isn't a new way to spell irony, I don't know what is. I somehow managed to ruin, oh, everything, like something out of Craig's stupid song about things turning to dust."

"I'm…sorry?" I offered, softly.

"This whole year, when I was making plans…I was always picturing _her_ there with me. Even before we were dating, isn't that crazy? I kept imagining having her to come home to; we'd have an apartment and when things went wrong she'd be there to cheer me up and make me forget whatever it was I'd be worrying about. Only now I'm all alone. I've never been this alone. It sucks." She spent a moment staring at her powdered-sugar covered fingers, then looked up at me, managed a smile. "Toby, hon, I'm sorry to dump all this on you," she said. Her voice had gone from sulky and pensive back to something bright and false and much more typically Paige. "I mean, I don't really know you, even."

"It's easier to spill your guts to a stranger. No consequences for the truth," I told her. It's true, though; Kate gets a new shrink every six months and I put stuff in my webjournal I'd never be able to tell my friends. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah?" She abandoned the remains of her doughnut and reached for her coffee.

"The last time I saw you, at the yearbook table, you seemed pretty happy." Happy was, actually kind of an understatement. She seemed thrilled to death with her newfound freedom. "What happened?"

"What happened? I came to my senses. The adrenaline rush wore off. Marco's graduation party, and the dancing and." She shrugged, while wiping her sticky fingers on a napkin. "Can I ask _you_ something?"

"I guess that's fair."

"You just seemed a little _too_ excited about my freedom to date, hon. You've never seemed interested in me before. JT, yeah, vintage grade nine JT – which, by the way, is _never_ a good inspiration for your pick-up lines – but not you. Is it the kissing girls thing or…?"

"Oh!" I said, with a nervous laugh. I was panicking, I needed a minute to stall, so I grabbed one of the donuts and took a bite, thinking while my mouth was too full to talk. But even after the highly-caloric sacrifice, all I could come up with was the truth. It was scary as hell, but I guess I thought she deserved some honesty back. "I, um…" pause, swallow, "I guess I just wanted you to know I supported you, cause I know how hard it is, wanting to date guys and girls." My heart was racing; somehow, subconsciously, I was waiting for her to point and laugh or something. Even though it would have been highly hypocritical. I'd only outed myself twice before, once to Kate and once to my friendslist, and let me tell you, it's a lot easier in writing.

She didn't laugh. Actually, she gave me this wide-eyed look, leaned across the table and whispered, "Wait, Toby, you're _bi_?"

I nodded.

Paige grinned, then. "I can't believe it. Well, maybe I can, but hon, why didn't you tell anyone?"

"No-one ever asked," I said, which was true enough. People don't take bisexuality seriously, especially not when you're sixteen, and the very last thing I needed was being accused of being one hundred percent fake again. All the other times I'd tried to stand out had had disastrous consequences; if there's anything I've learned in my years at Degrassi, it's that it's really a whole lot safer to be _invisible_. "I guess we're even," I added, looking up at her with a half-smile. "Spilling our guts, that is."

She was still smiling. "Toby, we're _so_ even."

Somehow? From then on, Paige and I were friends. Maybe having that kind of common ground makes forming friendships easier.

We talked until midnight, when the restaurant closed, and then Paige drove me home.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Notes**:

Woo, another chapter done! I got momentarily distracted with some other things this week – the Islands in the Stream/Tears are Not Enough arc never fails to kill me dead, and I usually have to write some fluff to recover, haha.

My reviewers, as always, are awesome! Thanks to **degrassifreak87**, **PaperclipsAreEvil, **and **Anne**! You rock. (: You really really do!

I know I promised Tim in this chapter, and I delievered, kind-of. You'll see more of him in the upcoming chapter five, along with Liberty, JT, and more Paige. And a trip to the CineSquare! And maybe some Alex too, if I can swing it. Look for chapter 5 soon.

In the meantime, here's chapter four. Enjoy, and review, and all that. Cheers!

* * *

"Around The Sun" 

(Chapter 4)

There were still lights on when I got home, and I wasn't surprised to walk in and find Kate still awake and doing something at the computer. Ashley went through her gothic phase a few years ago and everyone joked that _she_ was a vampire, but if anyone of my family's something supernatural, I'd put my money on Kate any day because she's the one who never ever sleeps. Every time I wake up in the middle of the night, she's always up too, watching infomercials or playing solitaire or surfing gay porn on the net. All right, I'm mostly kidding about the gay porn, but whatever she was doing on the computer that night, she clicked out of it at the speed of light and blushed a lot. As far as parental figures go, Kate's pretty cool. She's better than my real mom, not that that takes much.

"Were you waiting up for me," I asked, sneaking up behind her to peek at the computer screen. No gay porn tonight, just an instant-message box and something on notepad.

"Nope, just chatting to Robert in London," she replied, rapidly typing something in. The instant message chimed, and then she looked up at me with a smile.

"Say hi for me?" Robert Kerwin is one of the most interesting people I know. He has the greatest job, near-misses with explosives and shrapnel notwithstanding. He's actually, come to think of it, one of the biggest influences in my career-choice as journalist.

"Mmm-hmm. I told him you were out on a date and he was so proud of you!" Kate said, laughing and typing something else to Robert. "Did you have a nice time?"

I could feel myself blushing. "It wasn't a _date_," I mumbled, "Just a friend kind of thing. That's all."

"I see," she replied, using that patented parental tone of disbelief.

"Seriously. Her _girlfriend_ just dumped her, and she needed someone to talk to." I used the word 'girlfriend' like a weapon in my defence, and to my surprise, it seemed to work.

"Oh, Toby," Kate murmured, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry. I was just happy, you know? It's been a long time since you've been out with anyone."

Ha. Yeah. Since Kendra dumped me, what, two years ago? It's not like I didn't want to date, just that the only people I ever _liked_ were…they were like Emma Nelson, untouchable and unobtainable. And not to mention, completely and totally uninterested, and who could blame them? "…yeah, I guess."

"Well, if you wanted to bring her, or even a _real_ date if you wanted? To your dad's concert this weekend. We've got an extra ticket."

"Ash bailed?"

"Plans with Ellie, apparently." Kate paused for a moment to type something else to Robert. "Going to these things alone is horrible, Tobes…bring JT if you have to, or come alone, just please come?"

My dad's a concert cellist. We go to the symphony all the time, and to be honest, the excitement wore off a long time ago. I mean, I like the symphony, but if you go every week, it gets kind of dull. Things were a lot more interesting when he still played in that jazz group. Kate goes all the time, to support my dad. I hadn't been in a while. It'd be more fun if I had someone to go with, and then I started thinking about what the chances were that Paige would be into a trip to the symphony. It didn't seem very likely. I wished I dared ask Liberty, because I knew she'd appreciate a _fancy_ night out, but that would be too much like a date, and JT would never ever go for that. Ever. "Sure, I'll come," I said, finally, because I had the rest of the week to figure out who I should ask to come along with us.

I yawned, and Kate noticed. She laughed. "Past your bedtime, I think," she teased. "You've got an appointment with Dr Freid at 12:30 tomorrow, don't forget."

"Yes, Mommy," I joked back. Kate leaned up, kissed my cheek.

"Sweet dreams," she said.

"You too. Say goodnight to Robert." I walked up the stairs to my room, listening to the sound of Kate's rapid-fire typing.

Sometimes I have trouble falling asleep, but this time, I fell right to sleep. I didn't even dream, and that's kind of odd. I'd been having reoccurring nightmaresque dreams about the smell of gunpowder and nosebleeds, horrible things that were enough to break out the unisom, but no dreams that night.

I must have turned out my alarm clock in my sleep, because I slept for twelve hours and awoke to the sound of Kate knocking on my door. "Get _up_, I'm on my way out and you're due at Dr Freid's in an hour!" she called.

"Okay," I said, without opening my eyes or getting up. I'd hoped she'd go away and I could go back to sleep, but she knocked again and then opened the door and glared at me. "Up. Now," she said, no-nonsense. I whimpered, but did what I was told.

I hate mornings.

An hour wasn't much time, but it was enough for me to take a quick shower and brush my teeth and get dressed; in no time at all I was out in the driveway trying to convince Bubbe's Car that it wanted to start. My Bubbe is the most stubborn person on the planet. She moved into assisted living a few months ago, and I inherited her car. Unfortunately for me, the car's about as old and irritable as my Bubbe herself. I dare to take it to school and to Dr Freid's, but that's about it.

But it must have been my lucky day, because it only took a few tries and then the car started and I was on my way down the highway to my shrink's office, singing along to the mixtape in the cassette player. I only sing when I'm alone in the car; my father and grandfather might both have been musical geniuses, but that's one quality I didn't happen to inherit, despite all the music lessons they tried when I was little. At least he got Ash, I guess. It's funny, but that was one of the things I was most jealous of, when Kate and Ash came into our lives…dad learned she was a musician and he _doted_ on her, he bought her this fancy electric keyboard and introduced her to all his musical friends and he was just so proud of her. It really hurt, but I guess Kate made up for it with the new computer and trips to the comic-book store and extra desserts and letting me stay up past my bedtime. In retrospect, I guess we must have been even.

There was no time to spare, but I was in a good mood and the song wasn't over, so I sat there in the parking lot, singing along, drumming with one hand against the steering wheel to accompany my off-key voice, _and that was just a dream, just a dream, dream_, _dream_. It was one of my geekier moments, I must admit, so I was rather embarrassed when I turned off the car and noticed someone in the parking lot smiling in my direction. Oops. Busted.

"Hi Tim," I called, waving with one hand and swinging the car door closed with the other.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Notes:**

Here's another chapter for you all! I hope you like it. I'm having fun with Tim; we don't know much about him on the show, so I'm enjoying getting to fill in the blanks about his character. 

Thanks again to my awesome spectacular reviewers **uname** and **undecided**. As always, you rock!

I hope everyone likes this chapter. Enjoy, and please, _please_ review! And check out my other Degrassi fics too. Whee. Okay. Here's chapter 5, chapter 6 – with comic-book-movie geekery, more Tim, Paige, and Alex – will be out soon.

Cheers!

* * *

"Around the Sun"

(Chapter 5)

I suppose there are worse people to be caught at your geekiest than Tim. He was a really nice guy, after all. I'd met him first at school, when I was doing Mr Simpson's presentation of Hamlet. I didn't get to spend much time talking to Tim then, though, because…oh, it's the oldest story in the book, you're cute and someone slams you into a locker and calls you a fag and then the cavalry shows up in the form of Marco delRossi to take you under his wing. And that was that was that. Tim was a gorgeous Laertes and I was just the world's geekiest Polonius and then the show was over.

But a couple months ago, I ran into him in Dr Freid's waiting-room. I didn't even expect he would _remember_ me or anything, not after having a popular boyfriend and popular friends and all that: I thought I'd learned my lesson about the popular mixing with the invisible. He was nervous; he'd never been to therapy before. Coming to see Dr Freid, he said, was part of the deal he'd made with his aunt when he'd moved in with her when his dad had kicked him out of the house for being gay. I told him there was nothing to be afraid of, because Dr Fried is like your mom only nicer. And Tim calmed down, and ever since then we've stopped to talk every time our lives crossed paths at the therapist's.

He was sitting on the curb watching the cars coming and going, and after a moment's concern for the time and how I was probably running late for my appointment, I went and sat down next to him – strangely gratified by how he smiled when he saw me. "Hey," I said.

"Hi! I _love_ that song," he replied – referring, of course, to my earlier makeshift karaoke embarrassment. And I'd almost forgotten too.

"Oh," I said flatly, "you heard that?"

"You had the windows open."

"Yeah. The air-conditioning doesn't work," I blushingly explained. "Sorry?"

Tim shrugged. "It's a great song. Not often you hear mandolins in rock music."

Mandolins. I filed that away in my store of useless trivial knowledge – not like they'd ever bring back Whack-A-Brain or anything, but there was always Jeopardy. "So…what's up?" I added, rather awkwardly.

"Not much. I'm glad it's summer."

"Yeah, no more homework or exams to write!" I agreed.

"Plus, not having to see _him_ every day is such a relief," Tim admitted, smiling shyly.

I'll admit it; I was momentarily clueless to which 'him' this was a reference to; my mind went instantly to the people who used to call him faggot at school. "Him?" I asked, sounding almost as stupid as I felt.

It was Tim's turn to blush. "Yeah, you know, um, Marco? My first real boyfriend? But we broke up, so seeing him at school everyday was hard."

Oh. _Oh_. I was an idiot; once Tim mentioned it, I remembered Paige telling me about her brother and Marco being disgustingly in love, like another instance of the universe reminding her of her current state of singleness. "I'm sorry," I said, "I didn't know you'd split up."

"Yeah. He _is_ going to university; I guess we're better off, but it hurt. Still does." For a moment, he looked really _really_ sad and I wished I knew what I could do to make it better.

"Break-ups suck," I finally said.

For some reason, that made Tim smile. "You said it. I'm glad I found someone to be bitter with."

"Being single kind of sucks too."

And then Tim laughed. "That's almost what Dr Freid said. Only without using the word 'suck'." He paused, with a funny look on his face. "Hey, um, Toby?" he began, in a nervous voice.

"Yeah?" I said, giving him a curious look.

He shook his head. "It's nothing, never mind." A green jeep pulled up to the curb; a woman leaned out of the window and called out something in French. Tim turned, smiled at me again. "Nothing. That's my ride. I'll see you around, yeah?" I nodded and Tim grinned and ran off towards the jeep.

Just then, the alarm on my wristwatch beeped the hour, which startled me. I guess I was expecting that I'd be a lot later than that. It was sort of a relief; this was practically on-time for me, given that I wasn't the most punctual of people. I waved goodbye to Tim, and headed inside.

If there's one thing in life I'm an expert at? It's therapy. I started when my mom first left, when I was seven years old, which means that I've been going to see the shrink for more than half my life. I'd been coming here ever since my dad and I moved to Toronto. All of this makes me seem like some kind of psycho or something, but I'm not, really…just your average teenage angst. I've been on Paxil for a couple years now, nothing major…I've been in recovery from the eating disorder for a few years too. That's all. I'm okay; honest.

I really like going to see Dr Freid, because I can talk – I can say anything, and I know for sure she'll listen. Lately I'd been talking about Emma Nelson a lot; she'd been on my mind ever since she embarked on her own eating disorder. Her anorexia was something of a trigger. And you know? I'd _noticed_. I'd noticed exactly what was wrong with her, before her boyfriend, before her teachers, before anyone, practically. If she only would have _talked_ to me…I could have helped, I could have commiserated. I _understood_. But every time I tried, she brushed me off. Of course, she brushed me off. Because, what would I understand about stress and divorcing parents? About the nagging fear of imperfection? About having to keep the boy you're in love with a secret because no one would approve (because he Did Bad Things), about wondering why it is that you still like him anyway? Nothing, apparently. If I sound bitter, it's because I am. Emma Nelson not being worth it is like one of those lessons I should have learned half a dozen times by now, but somehow it never seems to stick.

Anyway. At therapy that day, I mostly talked about Paige, which must have been a nice change for Dr Freid. I tried to see if she knew how Paige could get Alex back, but then she asked if Paige had tried apologizing and I had to tell her I didn't know for sure. I suspected she hadn't. It was a start, anyway, and in no time at all, the hour was over.

Bubbe's Car stalled out twice on the way home, as if to make up for my earlier extraordinarily good car luck. Everyone else was out when I got home, so I took advantage of the empty-house quiet by having a nice nap.

The phone woke me up. "…yeah?" I answered it, sleepily, expecting Ash or Kate or someone.

"Tobes!" JT said, and I could hear Danny and Liberty arguing in the background. "I'm on my way to work, but do you have plans for tonight? You do now. CineSquare, 7:30, X-Men. Liberty says she won't come unless you're there. So, you're coming?"

"Yeah," I answered. "Sure, I'll meet you there." We said goodbye, and as I hung up the phone, I caught myself wondering if Paige would be working that night. A guilty part of me was hoping she would be, just so JT could see the error of his age-old 'never gonna happen' proclamation about the popular Miss Michaelchuck and me.

Not long after that, Kate came home, and we made dinner. It was just the two of us; my dad was in rehearsal, and Ash was out with Jimmy. After dinner, I had to go outside and persuade Bubbe's Car to continue its incident-free driving. The car ran fine, but about halfway there, the cassette decided to stop playing, right in the middle of my second-favourite song. It could have been worse.

I found everyone else in the mall clustered outside JT's new job – Danny and Derek were telling dirty jokes, and Liberty was glaring at them both in a very un-amused fashion. JT works at a dry cleaners now, doing alterations and making good money at it too, even if he _does_ hate to admit to his sewing skills. He was locking up the shop when I got there; still dressed in his starched white uniform shirt and a bright red nametag that read JAMES!

"Hey, everyone," he said, pausing to take off the nametag and stow it away in one of his pockets. "Quitting time, at last, I thought it would never come. Hey, Liberty," he added, sneaking up beside her and kissing her cheek. She glared at him, but didn't protest. In the background, Derek looked faintly hurt, which surprised me at first, but in retrospect, it would make sense for him to have a crush on her.

"Come on, don't we want good seats?" I asked, almost rhetorically, setting off for the movie theatre. It seemed like half of Toronto was there; we took our place at the back of a very long line. I was laughing at JT's impression of the Diva Customer from Hell when I felt someone lean an elbow casually against my shoulder.

I grinned up at her. "Hey, Paige."

"I was wondering when you'd notice me," she said, enveloping me in a hug. "Hi, hon."

Scratchy manmade fibers notwithstanding? Paige Michaelchuck gives _very_ good hugs.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Notes:**

Firstly, I'm so sorry that it took so long for this update! I moved across the state last weekend, and it took a little time to get everything all settled and find the time to finish the new chapter. (:

Secondly, big thanks to my reviewers: **Anne**, **imjustagirl0077**, **uname**, **shake and stir**, **skyz**, and **FlirtingxWithxDisaster**! You are all so, _so_ awesome. Thank you a million for reviewing; it makes me a very happy author.

Although I've long since moved out of the area, I still listen to CHUM FM thanks to the wonder of internet radio. grins I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Chapter seven – in which Paige and Toby have a road trip – will be out soon. Keep reading and reviewing!

Cheers,

elske

* * *

"Around the Sun" 

(Chapter 6)

It was really great to see Paige, and something of a relief that she wasn't ignoring me now that we were in public, which is an outcome that I'd been fearing, to be honest.

Paige – leaning against my shoulder again – giggled. JT had a look of shock on his face, and I was kind of glad that Danny and Derek had gone to wait on the line for snacks. "Fancy meeting you here," she said, "what are you seeing?"

"X-Men. Hey, Paige," said JT, before I had a chance to answer.

"Which is about to start, and I've got to get back to the popcorn," Paige declared, with an exaggerated sigh. She straightened up, and then looked over at me. "Toby, hon, _call me_," she added, before sprinting back to the concession area.

"What was that about?" JT asked me. I have the feeling I was grinning like an idiot.

I shrugged. "Paige? She's my friend?"

"Since _when_?" JT pressed.

I didn't get a chance to answer, because Liberty had just successfully purchased our tickets. She handed one to me and another to JT, telling us "You each owe me twelve bucks."

We caught up with Derek and Danny, who were carrying a small fortune's worth of popcorn and candy, and made our way into the theatre. I snagged the aisle seat and Liberty sat next to me, but a few minutes later, she asked "Toby, can we switch places?" I nodded, got up and switched seats with her. "Thanks," she whispered, "I know you won't try to kiss me in the dark, or put icecubes down my shirt." Ha, yep, that's me, Toby Isaacs, always the gentleman.

It was a good movie. I've always been fond of the X-Men, as far as superheroes go. They're, I don't know, easy to relate to. In the movies, Magneto's my favourite. I know he's the villain. I think I have a bad habit of sympathizing with the villains. But Magneto's bitter and Jewish and awesome. He reminds me of my Bubbe, I think, because they're both holocaust survivors. During one of the slow parts of the movie, I started daydreaming of what would happen if Magneto met my Bubbe, which was kind of a hysterical mental image. It's a good thing my Bubbe doesn't have superpowers.

But anyway, you know what I like best about comic books? No-one's ever _really_ dead. Even if you witnessed their death, you know in a few issues they'll be back and better than ever. I wish real life was like that. And sometimes the writers just crumple up the universe and then they smooth out the wrinkles and start over, tell the same stories but differently and maybe the heroes have weaknesses and the villains are redeemed. I _really_ wish real life was like that; I wish we could all start over, call it "Ultimate Degrassi" or something and maybe this time I'd get the girl for once (or the _boy_ even) and maybe I'd turn out a geeky winner instead of an invisible loser. That's the problem with real life. It's nothing like a comic book.

After the movie, I drifted away from the others so I could say goodbye to Paige, while JT tried to win Liberty something out of the claw machine and Danny and Derek teamed up to shoot zombies in the arcade. Paige wasn't very busy; she and her co-worker were sharing a bag of smarties and gossiping about the evilness of the new manager. I didn't want to interrupt, so I just sort-of hovered nearby, and finally the other girl behind the counter asked if I wanted anything.

"Yeah, I…" I began, at which point Paige _finally_ noticed me.

"Hey, hon! Candy?" she asked, offering up a brightly-coloured handful of chocolate.

"Thanks." To be polite, I selected two pieces, popped them into my mouth. "Slow night?"

"It is now," said the other girl, and Paige nodded in agreement.

"Slow enough I can finally go call Dylan and ask him to come pick me up," Paige said, a bit glumly. "And then he'll pout about losing time with Marco and maybe I'll just call a cab."

I blinked at her. "Paige, I have my car, I can give you a ride home. It's not a good car or anything, but it works."

She grinned. "But Toby, I have almost an hour left on popcorn duty."

"That's fine."

"Are you sure?" She sounded a little suspicious, or maybe just stunned.

"Paige, we're at the mall. I can find something to do for an hour. Go shopping. Whatever."

She squealed. "Toby, you're the best. Mwah. Okay. I'll start cleaning things up so I can get out of here right on time. I have to pick something up at Chapters too, so I'll see you there in an hour?"

"Deal," I said, and Paige went back to work. So I went to say goodbye to everyone and give Liberty her twelve dollars, and then I went out into the mall. I ended up at the record store, searching for anything on cassette to play in Bubbe's Car. It's frustrating; no one makes cassettes anymore and there's no CD player in Bubbe's Car. I didn't find any tapes, but I did spend a few dollars on a used copy of New Adventures in Hi-Fi before I left.

And then I headed to Chapters, where I found Paige – conspicuous in her brown polyester uniform – looking through the gossip magazines. She looked up at me, smiled, asked "Can I just look for another minute?"

"Sure," I said, "no problem." I looked longingly over my shoulder towards the section of the store with the graphic novels, wondering if any new interesting manga had come in, or even a new issue of Ultimate X-Men or anything – and I _wanted_ to go look, but I had second thoughts about being seen as this geeky in front of Paige. She was busy flipping through an issue of Vanity Fair, and I decided I might as well take my chances – first one step towards that section, and then another, and then I saw someone who looked kind-of familiar on the floor reading a comic.

I jumped when Paige tapped my shoulder. "Are you ready to go?"

"Sure," I said. And then the boy on the floor looked up at me and grinned.

"Hey Toby!" he said, getting to his feet.

"Oh. Hi, Tim," I stammered, kind-of surprised…to see him here, to see him reading comics, and to see him happy to see me.

"Hey. Hey, Paige," he added, turning and smiling shyly at her. "Um. How's Marco?"

"Marco? He's fine. Practically moved in; every time I go home, he's there. Making the most of it, I guess, Dylan's going back to McGill in August. They're disgustingly happy," she added, in a small voice. "I guess someone has to be. It's really gay in my house lately…it's like Tangiers or something. You two should come over, you'd fit right in."

I don't think she meant to out me. I really don't. I was frantically trying to play it cool, to hope that Tim didn't pick up on the slip, even though Tim's never struck me as anything near stupid.

He laughed, nervously, and asked "Does that make you Gertrude Stein?"

"I think that was Alex," Paige said, shaking her head. She held up her magazine. "I'm going to go buy this before they close," she announced, and headed off towards the checkouts.

"I didn't know that you two were…" Tim began.

I interrupted. "Friends? Me and Paige? Yeah, but that's all. She's still hung up on Alex, and I'm…" I trailed off, having no idea how to end that sentence. But somehow it was okay.

"Oh," said Tim, "Yeah," and he was smiling. "You went to the movies tonight? What did you see; I _love_ the movies."

"The X-Men," I replied, and then we started talking about movies and comics and everything. It was only for a few minutes, but it seemed like longer. Paige made her way through the checkout line and came back; she had to clear her throat three times before getting my attention.

"Toby. They're closing," she said, looking down at her wristwatch.

"Oh," said Tim, flinching. "I'll see you at Dr Freid's or something, yeah?"

"Yeah," I said, "goodnight!" and I let Paige drag me out of the bookstore. We walked arm-in-arm through the parkinglot to Bubbe's Car. "It's not pretty, but it does. No music, though, it ate the cassette," I told her, apologetically.

"It's fine, hon," she said, turning on the radio, tuning in CHUM FM and singing along to an 80s Madonna hit while I started the car. The song gave way to a commercial, and Paige sighed and turned the volume down.

It was now or never, I thought. "Paige? What are you doing Saturday?"

"Working," she answered, flatly. "Great thing about being single; no guilt about working the datenight shifts. Why?"

"Oh, my dad's concert, do you even like the symphony? We have an extra ticket, I thought you might want to come, that's all," I stammered, feeling only a little bit idiotic.

"The symphony?" Her nose wrinkled. "Sorry, hon. I have all day Friday, we can do something, just not the symphony, okay?" She paused, and then added, "But, you know who might want to go? Tim."

"Tim?" I echoed. "Why?"

"Please. He totally likes you!" she exclaimed.

"Paige! He's…he went out with Marco…" I tried to explain, and I could feel myself blushing.

"So. He likes you. You should ask him."

"I don't know…" I protested, stopping the car at a red light.

Paige had flipped open her cel phone and was scrolling through her contacts list. "I have his number in here," she said, and then, "Aha!" She pulled a pen from her purse, grabbed one of my hands, and proceeded to scrawl Tim's phone number on my skin.

"Green light, Paige, green light," I said, hearing a horn honking in the distance.

She reluctantly relinquished my hand, turned the radio back up and we both sang along to Culture Club. Everything was looking up, until the car stalled.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Notes:

Hello dear readers! Chapter seven is _finally_ here. Again, apologies for the delays! I've already started on chapter eight, so you won't have to wait long for it.

A million thank-yous to my reviewers: **Flirtingxwithxdisaster**, **imjustagirl0077**, **skyz**, **Lil Spazzy Q**, **One of the Crowd**, **uname**, and special thanks to **Kaitlinbell**. Thank you so much for reading; you all inspire me to continue telling the story. (:

* * *

Around the Sun:

Chapter 7

"I can call CAA?" Paige offered, but I shook my head.

"No, it'll start in a minute," I told her, "it happens all the time, I _told_ you my car wasn't any good." I was probably blushing because I was kind-of embarrassed. Paige was probably used to riding in decent cars that weren't decades-old and didn't stall out all the time. Muttering encouragements under my breath, I turned the key again and – miraculously! – the car started back up. "There, all better," I stated, and turned the now-functioning car back onto the street.

A few minutes later, we were in Paige's driveway. She smiled at me. "Promise you'll call Tim?" she said. "_Promise_?"

I flinched. "Paige, I don't know…"

"Toby. You'll call him," she insisted. "And then we can go out and celebrate tomorrow. I have dibs on Dylan's car. Okay?"

"Okay," I said, smiling weakly. I waved goodbye, and then drove home.

Kate was making pancakes when I got home, and Ashley was sitting in the kitchen looking through a bridal magazine. "Have a good time with your girlfriends?" Ashley asked.

"I was just out with Liberty and JT and stuff," I protested.

"Ash, be nice," said Kate, moving away from the stove to hand Ashley a plate of pancakes. "Toby, sit down and have some?"

"It's okay, I'm not hungry," I said quickly, trying to keep myself from mentally calculating the calories in maple syrup.

Kate shot me a look, but didn't say anything. She brought her own plate over to the kitchen table. "Did you have a good time at the movies?" she asked me.

"Yeah," I said, "It was a great movie." I caught myself staring at the pancakes, and Kate must have noticed, because she asked again if I wanted any. "No," I said, "I'm fine," and I yawned. "I think I'm going to bed, actually. Goodnight." I ran upstairs, grabbed a tee-shirt and a clean pair of shorts and was about to go take a shower when I caught sight of Tim's phone-number written on my hand. I wasn't sure if I was going to call him or not, but just in case, I didn't want to wash it off, so I copied it down on a piece of scrap-paper I found on my desk. Just in case.

I tried my best not to stress out too much over it, but when I woke up, the first thing I saw was that piece of paper. It was earlyish in the morning; I could hear dad practicing his music down the hall and voices from downstairs – people talking, Ash and Jimmy, probably. I was curious, so I got out of bed and went to see what was going on.

"Morning, sleepyhead," Kate said.

"Morning." I smiled at her. Ash was eating some oatmeal at the table, and Jimmy was sitting nearby, showing Kate his portfolio.

"There's more, if you want some," Ashley said, nodding towards the stove. I was just hungry enough that oatmeal actually sounded _good_, so I went to fix myself a bowl.

"So you two have big plans for the day?" asked Kate.

"The ultimate date!" Ashley replied around a mouthful of oatmeal.

"We're going to Buffalo," Jimmy explained. "To see this crazy sculpture exhibit at the Albright Knox…grab some hot wings at Duff's…"

"And see the battle of the bands at Canisius," added Ashley.

"It sounds fun," I told them.

"Sorry Tobes, you're not invited," teased Jimmy, and I rolled my eyes.

"Do I _ever_ get to come to Buffalo?" I asked rhetorically. Everyone laughed. And then Kate changed the subject.

"Jimmy, I had no idea you were such an artist," she said. "This is incredible."

"Thanks Mrs K," he replied, overly-modest.

I looked across the table at the picture. Kate was right; Jimmy's _really_ good. It was a picture of Rick, lifelike enough to give me goosebumps. He was angrily staring down the barrel of the gun. I had to look away.

It's kind of ironic…everyone else probably remembers Rick as violent, and I suppose he _was_, but I remember him as gentle. I mean, he even role-played a _paladin_ and…I don't know. Seeing him – remembering him – with the gun was unsettling. I tried not to think about it, and went back to eating my oatmeal.

"We'll be back tomorrow," said Ashley, getting up and taking her bowl to the sink. "We're staying with Jimmy's cousins at Canisius and…" She started into the foyer, and Kate followed with Jimmy, the three of them discussing their plans for the weekend. I sat in the kitchen, finishing my oatmeal and staring down at the ink traces of Tim's phone number on my hand, trying to work up the courage to call him. And just as I was looking at the phone, it rang.

I answered it. "Hello?"

"Toby? Hello, Toby," said the man on the other line. It was Robert Kerwin; I recognized his voice immediately, even though the reception was awful. "Toby, it's Robert, is Kate there? It's a bit of an emergency."

"Sure, yeah, I'll get her," I said. After Kate went to the phone, I went upstairs to get dressed, killing time until I could phone Tim. When I went back downstairs, Kate was looking for her keys. She always manages to lose them. "What's going on?" I asked.

"I have to go to the airport," she replied. "I don't know the whole story yet, but can you go make up the guest room for Robert?"

"Sure," I said, bending to pick up the keys from where they'd fallen underneath the sofa and handing them to her. "I'll see you later, then." I watched her go, and then went to change the sheets in the guest room like Kate had told me. And then I figured I'd stalled enough.

Somehow, without realizing it, I'd managed to memorize Tim's phone number. It rang, six times, before he answered. "Hello?" he said in a drowsy voice.

"Hi!" I squeaked. "Tim? This is Toby, Toby Isaacs, um. Paige gave me your number, I hope you don't mind?"

"Toby!" He sounded happy. "It's great to hear from you, hi."

"Hi." It took me a moment to remember why I'd called. "Tim. Um. Are you busy Friday night? Because I have an extra ticket for the symphony? My dad's a cellist and the whole family's going and we have an extra ticket, like I said, and anyway I was wondering if you'd like to come with us?" Because I was nervous, I was speaking very fast.

"Really? That sounds _great_," Tim said. "I'd love to go, thank you."

I was grinning like an idiot. "Wodnerful. You can come over? Around five-thirty? Do you know where I live?" I gave him directions to our house and then hung up the phone, feeling incredibly giddy. I'd done it.

My hands were shaking as I dialed Paige's number. "Paige," I told her, "I did it. He said yes."

She squealed. "Hon. I am. So. Proud of you! We're going out to celebrate. I'll be right over!"

So I waited out on the porch for her, and a few minutes later, she pulled up in Dylan's convertible. "Hey hon," she said, "anywhere you want to go, anywhere at all, you deserve it."

"Niagara Falls?" I joked, because it was the first thing to come to mind.

Paige shrugged. "Get in, let's go!"


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Notes:**

Again, apologies for the wait for this chapter! Real-life's gotten hectic for me, to say the least. Pretty soon I'll be settled in my new home at my new job; and then I'll have more time to write! I hope this chapter was worth the wait. Thanks a million to my reviewers, **FlirtingxWithxDisaster **and **roverjj**. (:

Around the Sun:

**(chapter 8)**

I really _wanted_ to go to Niagara Falls. It was pretty much my favourite place in the world, after all. When my real mom left, my dad and I moved out of the house in Toronto and we went to live with Bubbe in St Catherines for a while, and my dad and I used to go to the falls every day. And Bubbe made great food and there wasn't any yelling, and so it's a really nice memory. So yeah, I wanted to go, but I had to be logical.

"Paige," I said, "We can't really go to Niagara Falls. We don't have time; we'd just get there and have to turn around and come home."

"Oh." She frowned for a moment, then smiled and put on her turn signal to switch lanes. "We'll just have to go to Plan B, then!"

"What's Plan B?" I asked.

Paige laughed. "Plan B is a secret, honeybee. You'll find out when we get there.

I was kept in suspense for about five minutes, until we arrived. And, I have to say, I was surprised. "Plan B is minigolf?"

She unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door of the car. "Half of Plan B is minigolf, minigolf and ice-cream, the best ice-cream in the city."

We waited on the line, and I examined the menu, trying to decide what to have. I was starving, and somehow I actually let myself order a banana split. It didn't seem too terribly extravagant, compared to Paige's monsterous tin roof sundae. As we walked over to the nearby concrete benches and tables, I asked "Hey, Paige? What's the other half of Plan B?"

Paige smiled enigmatically. "That's _still _a secret."

We sat down and started eating our dessert. Maybe it was because I was very hungry, or maybe it really was the best ice-cream in the city; either way, it was delicious. Paige, who wasn't the gossip queen of Degrassi for nothing, wanted _details_ about my phonecall with Tim, so I did my best to fill her in. And then I got sidetracked by the sound of a familiar voice in the distance.

"I'm honestly not hungry, Peter."

"We'll get something and split it, all right?" He put his arm around her thin shoulders, and she and I both flinched. It was Emma Nelson, of course, too thin in a pink sundress. And her boyfriend, Peter. I didn't want to watch the two of them – remember, this was the girl I'd been a little in love with since I first started noticing girls, never mind that she'd made it perfectly clear time and again that she wasn't interested in me. But I couldn't lok away.

"Peter, I can't. You know I'm a vegan now: think of those poor cows! But you go ahead."

"We have vanilla soy ice-cream," the cashier chimed in helpfully.

"See, that's perfect. Perfect, isn't it, Em? We'll have a hot fudge sundae. Two spoons."

I looked away, stared down at my ice-cream: a melting puddle of calories and fat.

"There's just something so sleazy about him," Paige murmured in an undertone. "Like…I could picture him spending his free time giving blowjobs to rich guys, 'cause he likes the attention."

That was _not_ a mental image I needed, but it did make me smile. "I dunno," I said, "I guess they're good for eachother." I dropped my ice-cream spoon right on the table, and sighed.

"You really liked her, didn't you," Paige asked gently, and I nodded.

At the next table, Peter sat down and pulled Emma into his lap. "Mmm, it's good stuff," he said, taking a bite, spooning up another and offering the spoon towards Emma. She shook her head, and then she seemed to notice us. Paige waved, and I forced a smile. Emma raised one hand, a tired sort of wave, then let Peter feed her the dessert.

My stomach was churning. Stupid ice-cream. "Paige," I whispered, "Paige, what's the rest of Plan B? I don't want to watch anymore…"

I guess Paige understood, because she leaned across the table and kissed me right on the lips. I hope I didn't look too shocked. "Come on, honeybee," she said – loud enough for Peter and Emma to hear – and then she stood up and took my hand. I grinned and put my arm around her shoulders. We made it all the way back to the parking lot before collapsing into laughter."

"Hey," I said, "Thanks."

"No problem, hon. It was the least I could do. I hope we made them jealous!" She grinned, a bit evilly, and got into the car.

"Maybe we did." I shrugged, settled myself into the passenger seat. "Now what?"

"Still a surprise!"

But this time, I was much quicker at figuring it out. "Paige," I said, as we pulled into the parking garage, "We're going to the mall?"

"Not just any mall. The Eaton Centre. The best mall in the city! My favourite place. Come on, we've got to get you some great new date clothes!"

"I don't need new date clothes," I protested weakly. "I mean, I just bought a new suit and…"

She exited the car, walked around to open the car door and take my hand, dragging me to my feet. "Come on, it's _shopping!_"

"Yeah, well, I guess I could use a new tie," I concluded, and let Paige lead me to the mall.

We had a good time, I guess, even if trying to come up with opinions on the million identical pink dresses Paige tried on was a little difficult. The one she picked out looked a lot like the one Emma was wearing earlier, only I didn't tell Paige that, of course. And I did buy a new tie. Paige said Tim would like it. It was nice, silk and kind of silvery. I don't know, I'm not much of an expert on fashion.

We'd finished shopping and were on our way out of the mall when Paige stopped in front of a store window. "Hey," she said, "Check it out. It's Terri!" And it was indeed, a larger than life billboard of her former classmate turned plus-sized model. "wow," Paige added, "She looks _great_."

"A little too tan," I argued, but she really did look good. Besides the tan and all the makeup, that is. I hadn't thought about Terri in ages, and I wondered absently if anyone had bothered to fill her in on what had happened at Degrassi since she'd left, about what had happened to Rick, _Rick_, and I shivered.

"I should call her," Paige added, "I totally should."

"Yeah," I said softly, "yeah." Thinking about Rick and Terri put a dent in my good mood, and I was quiet all the way home.

Paige dropped me off, after exacting a promise that I would call her the _instant_ I got back from my night out with Tim. I waved at her as she drove away, then walked into our house. It was abnormally quiet. I found Kate in the kitchen.

"Hey, Kate," I said.

"Shh!" she replied. "Robert's sleeping off his jetlag."

"What happened with Robert," I asked in a whisper. "Why is he here?"

Kate grimaced. "Oh, Tobes, his husband left him. They're getting a divorce. He's devastated."

"You're kidding!" Robert and Chris were, like, the perfect couple. Well, that's what I'd always thought, anyway.

"I don't know all the details. I didn't want to ask too many questions. Poor Robert; he's really crushed. That's why I'm making his favourite dinner," she explained, and then she gave me this pathetic sort of look. "Tobes, give me a hand?"

"Yeah," I said, "Sure." …you know how everyone has that one stupid thing they're secretly good at? Think JT's mad sewing skills? Mine, I'm ashamed to admit, is cooking. When my dad and I first moved in, he and Ash were busy with music lessons and Kate wanted to spend time with me and so she taught me how to cook. We were both surprised when I took to it.

So Kate and I made chicken marsala, and we talked about Paige and Tim, about the new houses Kate was working on and the latest thing she'd written. It was nice. I guess I'm really lucky to have parents like mine…I flinch every time I think about how Tim's parents threw him out of the house, you know?

Everything was in the oven, and Kate said suddenly "Cake!"

"What?"

"Cake! Tobes, be a dear and run to the bakery and pick up something nice? A Saccher Torte or something?"

I flinched. "Kate, I can't. Bubbe's car…it's so dead we should be sitting Shiva."

Kate sighed. "We'll take it to the repair man on Monday, in the meantime, take my car? The keys are on the counter."

"Sure," I agreed, grabbing up the keys.

The bakery turned out to be crowded. I took a number, waited my turn behind a bunch of grandmothers and housewives.

"Thirty seven? Thirty seven?" said the girl behind the counter. There was something familiar about the voice, I thought, and then I got close enough to see her. "You're thirty seven?"

I nodded, handed her the slip of paper. "Hey, Alex."


End file.
